


Filou de les Étoiles and the Arachnidrones

by Disva



Series: Rabbizorg Stories [1]
Category: Rabbizorgs
Genre: Combat, Cyborgs, Gen, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27672832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disva/pseuds/Disva
Summary: Rabbizorg hero Filou de les Étoiles finds himself having to save the lives of everyone aboard his ship when an army of evil, self-replicating robot spiders take over the engines! Putting his magic tricks to deadly use, he leaps into danger with grace and style!
Series: Rabbizorg Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023508
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Filou de les Étoiles and the Arachnidrones

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Rabbizorgs universe, which, as I understand it, has zero written works! You can learn more about the universe from the creator's twitter ( https://twitter.com/lordyanyu/status/1314925500473602049 ), as well as information on how to make your own! ( https://twitter.com/lordyanyu/status/1325841479131017216 and https://twitter.com/lordyanyu/status/1330135601941794816 )
> 
> The main character, Filou de les Étoiles, is owned by me, you can see his sheet here for a visual reference to his appearance: https://twitter.com/lordyanyu/status/1327617551468118019

The stars poured their glimmering light through the large windows of The Golden Burrow, Replexia's finest space liner, illuminating the dashing figure on stage. Striking a pose in the silvery light as confetti rained onto the crowd, Filou de les Étoiles took a bow. His purple shoulder cape fluttered with his movements, the golden constellations embroidered into the fabric seeming to dance and shift. "Thank you all, you've been a wonderful audience!" he called out as he stood, a smile lighting up his faceplate. Despite being an active hero, he could never quit his greatest passion — delighting enraptured audiences with his magic!

The crowd of delighted rabbits ringing the stage rose as they showered him with cheers and applause. The group was a strange one for the Golden Burrow. Normally used for luxury cruises, the ship was now serving a very different role. A serious incident in Replexia’s asteroid belt had necessitated the evacuation of multiple space stations, and every ship available was put to use saving the asteroid miners and their families. Tough, grizzled miners watched with soft smiles as their young children cheered excitedly at the stage. Filou had helped evacuate them, weeks ago, and now was helping to raise their spirits until they got to their destination and regrouped with the other refugees.

Stepping off stage as the cheers and applause cascaded down onto him, he returned to his quarters with joy in his heart. However, before he could even make it to his rooms, his internal communicator suddenly beeped. Someone was calling him, and whoever it was, they were coming through a priority line. Ducking into a secluded alcove, he took the call. The voice of the stern spaceship captain, Tarix, greeted him. Just from the captain's first words, he knew there was trouble. He had been a hero for nearly a decade now, after all, and he had cultivated a fine nose for danger.

"Filou, there's trouble."

Come to think of it, actually maybe it wasn't that difficult to figure out. Filou nodded, looking left and right to make sure that nobody else was listening, then whispered his reply.

"What's wrong, Captain?"

Tarix's voice was grim as he replied, "There's damage in the engine room. And from what we can see from the cameras that haven't been destroyed yet, robots are to blame. We can't get an exact number, and we don't know where they came from. It seems like there are more of them every minute!"

Filou frowned, trying to piece the clues together. "Show me, Tarix."

The cameras could only catch glimpses of the robots, they stuck to the shadows and avoided detection, but as soon as he saw a glimpse of their long metal legs and dark-shelled bodies, he knew right away what he was dealing with.

"Arachnidrones! This is serious, Captain. They're self-replicating robots. They might be part of the alien force that first attacked those asteroids! What’s worse is, they're not easy to take down, either. Ordinary weapons can't even scratch their metal shells...how many people are on this mission, exactly?"

After a pause, Tarix reluctantly answered, "Only you, Filou de les Étoiles. You're the only Rabbizorg on the ship, and if these drones are as tough as you say, my guards are worse than useless here."

Filou winced as he realized what he was up against, but kept his voice confident. "No problem, Captain! You ought to know that I run my show without an assistant, after all!"

"Wait, Filou, hold on! Just delay them long enough so we can get people onto the escape pods! Don't take on more than you can handle!"

Shaking his head, he began walking down to the engines. "No dice, Captain! With how fast these robots replicate, delaying them would only make things worse. There won't be any pods to escape in if I don't take care of this right now. Leave it to me!"

Ignoring Tarix's protests, he flung his cape over his shoulder and burst into a sprint. There was no time to waste!

* * *

Deep in the bowels of the engine room, Filou stalked the dark corridors, shining light from his fingers. The arachnidrones had already cut off power to the lights, here...that was a bad sign, even worse than the shuddering and creaking of the floor. If they had already gotten to work on eating away at the structural supports, then things were even worse than Tarix knew, but cutting the lights suggested some level of intelligence. Keeping his channel with the ship’s captain open, he whispered out, “Cut the power here, Captain. They might be siphoning the energy to fuel themselves.”

Tarix protested, “Those are the engines! If I cut power, we’ll be unable to maneuver!”

Filous frowned as he felt the floor shudder beneath his steps. “I’ll help hook them back up later, but, trust me. Please.”

A few grumbles later, and the task was done. Filou watched as his sensors reported a shard drop in energy readings. If the robots were feeding off the engine power, then this should starve them out while he worked. Casting light at the floor, he noticed that the walkway itself had been chewed clear through in several places. Crouching down, he shined his light into the darkness, searching for trouble. Suddenly, he heard a sound from somewhere above him.

Instincts moved him before he could think, sending him leaping backwards in a somersault, barely avoiding a hail of bullets flying from the ceiling. Flicking his lights up, he spotted his assailants, a trio of spider-like robots clinging to the ceiling with pointed metal legs. The dark steel of their chassis was dull and pitted, but he knew from experience that the metal was much tougher than it looked. The twin barrels of the guns mounted on each side of their heads smoked softly in the air as they turned to aim at him once more.

Crouching, he suddenly launched himself upwards with a powerful jump, a blade of crystallized light forming from the fingers of his right hand. Twisting in the air to avoid their guns, he stabbed up into one of the drones, driving the hard light through its metal chassis with a heavy crunch as its legs jerked, smoke pouring from the puncture. He landed, rolling to dodge the inevitable counterattack, before the body of the robot thudded into the walkway just behind him. The sharp  _ ping _ of steel snapping was his only warning before the failing supports finally broke, sending him tumbling down into darkness before he could even balance himself.

Letting out a startled cry as he plummeted downwards, he quickly re-oriented himself, his internal gyroscopes rapidly spinning to stabilize his fall. Reaching out his arms, he shot all eight of his fingers outwards, each one forming a barbed crystallized light spike at its tip. With a loud crunch, they embedded into the wall, snapping taut as they found purchase. Swinging down towards the wall, he tucked up his legs and braced himself, landing with a thud. Secure against the wall, he slowly pulled himself up, retracting his extendable fingers back into his arms, trying to plan his next move.

“Tarix, just what is this place? I can’t see the bottom...why is there a gigantic pit in your engine rooms!?”

Only a hissing static answered him. The robots were jamming communications!

“Right, then. I’ll figure it out on my own, I suppose...”

Before he could figure out where he was, however, the sound of soft whirring caught his ears. Looking up, he spotted the two remaining Arachnidrones slowly lowering towards him, suspended on thin strands of synthetic silk. As they descended, they turned, lifting up their heads and baring their gun-barrel fangs. Smirking, he yanked his left hand away from the wall, letting the hard-light spikes fade. Reaching up to the card deck on the left side of his head, he drew the top card and quickly tossed it with a sharp spin. The metallic card flew out in a wide arc, slicing through the silken strands, sending the robots plummeting downwards into darkness.

Laughing merrily, he effortlessly caught the card as it flew back into his hand, then flipped it over. A picture of himself taking a bow with his wand tucked behind his back was printed on the front. Just below the picture were the words "The Magician", and just above, the numeral I. This was perfect! With the power of The Magician, getting rid of the arachnidrones would be a piece of cake! However, just as he moved to grab his wand, a strand of sticky webbing shot up from the darkness, wrapping around him!

Now tethered to one of the falling robots, he was yanked downwards, unable to hold on with only one of his hands latched on the wall. Sent tumbling down into the pit, the card flew out of his hand as the wind rushed past him. His cries of protest were interrupted by a loud yelp as he slammed into a pile of rubble covering the hard metal floor of the pit.

Momentarily dazed by the impact, he recovered an instant later, sitting up and looking around. Thankfully, it seemed that the robots were not nearly as durable as he was, the two that had fallen with him were smashed beyond repair. Extending a finger out from under the webbing, he formed a small light blade and sliced through the tough silk, quickly freeing himself. Glancing around as he sat up, he groaned in frustration, realizing that he couldn’t find his card.

However, as his fingers lit up, casting light over his surroundings, he realized that he was completely surrounded. Dozens of arachnidrones covered the walls, beeping softly as they began detecting his presence. Wasting no time, he leapt up and fired a blast of haphazard laser shots into the swarm from his fingers, momentarily knocking them off-balance and causing many of their shots to narrowly miss, a few bullets instead narrowly deflected by his force fields. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he ran toward the closest of the many corridors leading out of the circular pit, bullets peppering the floor behind him as he zig-zagged out of sight.

“Not good, not good! Just how many are there!?”

A quick perusal of his internal processors pulled up a recording of what he had seen, and the rapidly-climbing number made him groan. He knew that the Golden Burrow wasn’t a military ship, but they still should have noticed the robots far earlier!

Turning the corner, he flattened himself against a wall to take stock of the situation. There were far more robots than he had expected, and The Magician was lost somewhere in the rubble-strewn floor of that pit. The cards in his deck held powerful programs that enhanced his combat capabilities, but he couldn't have multiple copies of the same card, and they were generated in a random order...it certainly was a run of bad luck so far! Still, he had two others ready to go, thanks to his deck having room for three drawn cards at a time. Once he used them, though, he'd have to wait around a minute for the next one to be printed, so he needed to conserve his resources, especially because of how much energy making the cards drained from his systems. But, hearing the awful cacophony of hundreds of metallic legs stabbing into the walls and floor behind him, he knew that he couldn't be stingy right now.

Dashing down the hallway, he quickly drew his second card, number XIV, Temperance. He would have wished for something a bit stronger, but it would do. Lifting his right hand, he drew his wand from its holster and briskly tapped it against the card. Instantly, a shimmering purple field sprung into place around him, the bubble of light protecting him from harm, extending his natural force fields significantly. It wasn’t impervious, but at least it wouldn't slow him down, and it’d deflect most small-arms fire.

Turning right at an intersection, he saw two arachnidrones at the same moment that they spotted him. Falling into a tight roll, he avoided their shots, the bullets sliding along the curves of his force field, before he landed on his stomach. His arms clicked as he shifted them into finger-gatling mode, his digits forming the barrels of the guns. Spinning the four barrels rapidly, he fired off a blistering volley of pulsed laser fire at the two of them, each of his arms focused on one of the robots. For a moment, they struggled, trying to rise up from beneath the scorching light, before both finally collapsed.

However, as he rose, his confidence faltered even as he saw them laying there, smoking heavily from the sustained fire. They should have fallen far quicker under such concentrated laser blasts. The metal of the ship must have been especially sturdy, their armor was even better than he had planned for. Rapid-fire laser blasts were nearly useless, unless he could completely overwhelm them.

“Tarix? Are you there? Listen, the arachnidrones, their armor-”

A red beeping message alerted him to the fact that his communications were entirely offline. Wonderful.

Hearing the sound of the robots from the pit still racing towards him, he quickly drew the last available card from the deck. Card IX, The Hermit, this time. Tapping his wand on the card, there was a soft hum as his visor gained x-ray vision, allowing him to peer through walls, revealing ghostly outlines of what lay behind them. He saw the dozens of robots crawling down the hallway from around the corner, then checked all the corridors around him, looking for a means to escape.

Selecting an empty corridor, he sprinted away, using his enhanced vision to avoid the patrols, narrowly managing to avoid the groups of robots sent to cut off his escape. The sound of skittering metal legs echoed down the dark chambers, his vision entirely made of ghostly purple outlines of his surroundings as he ran. Once he had a sizable lead, he turned and crouched down, holding his arms before him as he faced his pursuers. This would burn up a lot of energy, so he couldn’t waste his shot.

Pressing his arms together, his fingers shifted, rotating to form an octagonal barrel, before he started pouring light energy from all eight digits. His circuitry began to glow bright purple as he rapidly drained his battery, forming a shimmering, shifting ball of coruscating magenta light at the end of the cannon. Holding the blast as stable as he could, he waited even as the robots poured out from around the corner. He had to make this count.

“Come on...come and get me,” he whispered faintly.

The first wave of robots fired at him, but with the glare of his charging laser cannon, their aim was off enough that Temperance’s shields were able to deflect their bullets with ease. Once the bulk of the group revealed itself, he finally let loose, the sphere instantly shifting into a searing laser beam! With a quick arc of his hands, he drew a wide circle, blasting the ceiling, walls, and floor with the charged-up blast, melting any robots caught by the ray into slag. 

As the last remnants of the beam faded, he shuddered, able to physically feel the drain on his battery. Standing, he sighed in relief as he saw that the vast majority had been wiped out. However, the few stragglers that had hid behind the bodies of their unfortunate companions soon crawled out of hiding and fired upon him! Dashing past another corner, his shielding barely managing to deflect the bullets, he escaped into a side passage just as the force field ran out of charge. The effects of the cards only lasted for about a minute each, draining faster if he over-used them.

Without any cards on hand, he was at a disadvantage. He had to retreat for the time being, and try to find out whatever he could about the arachnidrone's numbers, while letting his deck refill. Looking around quickly, relying on The Hermit’s x-ray vision, he spotted a narrow access corridor behind a nondescript door. It was locked, but that was no barrier to a Rabbizorg. Forming a small, scalpel-like knife of crystallized light with one finger, he sliced the lock in two, then yanked the door open and stepped inside, taking the lock with him to not leave any evidence of his passage.

Quietly closing the door, he held perfectly still and peered through the wall. He watched as the surviving arachnidrones grouped up with another swarm, more than enough to overwhelm him. His heart pounding, he watched nervously as they scrambled past, their metal legs clattering along the walls as they searched for him. Thankfully, they seemed to overlook the tiny door he had hidden himself behind. Right as the last arachnidrones passed by his hiding spot, his x-ray vision faded, and a moment later, a soft click below his left ear heralded the arrival of a freshly printed card. Leaving it be for the moment, he crept through the narrow corridor as quietly as he could, listening carefully.

Stepping down a set of stairs silently, his fingers casting soft beams of light before him, he found himself walking below the very same corridors he had just escaped from, his ears nearly scraping the corridor's ceiling. Suddenly, those very same ears caught a noise from above - the sound of crunching metal. And from what he could tell, it was coming from more than one spot! That must mean that there were arachnidrones eating away at the walls just above him! Another click greeted him as a second card left the deck, making his decision for him. He had to take them out!

Looking around, he spotted a circular manhole cover above him, an access hatch that he hadn't noticed before. Hopefully, the robots hadn't noticed it either. Carefully reaching up, he sank his left hand's fingers into the metal, using hard light spikes to dig them in deep and get a firm grip. Then, crouching, he leapt up with a powerful jump, flying out of the hole as his right hand formed a crystallized light blade, gleaming with destructive energy!

As soon as his head left the corridor, he saw the three arachnidrones turn to face him. They were already on alert, he wouldn't be able to take them by surprise. As he leapt into the air, their gun-fangs fired a rain of bullets towards him, forcing him to think on his feet even before he hit the ground. Twisting the manhole cover around, he held it out like a shield as he landed, the bullets pounding into the metal, denting it, but unable to pierce the hard slab. Hefting his heavy shield in front of him, he charged towards the closest arachnidrone and stabbed his crystal light blade just beneath his shield. In a noisy crunch, the robot ceased to function, hissing and smoking as sparks flew from the gouge.

The two remaining drones quickly split up, clambering up along the left and right walls, peppering him with gunfire. Raising up his improvised shield, he managed to block the shots of the robot to his left, but was unable to avoid taking a few hits from the one on his right. At first, his force fields were able to take the assault, but under such concentrated fire, they began to waver. Grunting and staggering as the bullets broke through his shielding, smashing chips off of his mechanical parts and punching into his organic torso, he pushed the pain down and focused on survival. Bracing himself on his now-unsteady legs, he quickly extended the fingers on both his hands, slamming the robot on his left with the bullet-scarred access hatch as his right hand speared the other robot with his crystal-light blade!

A plume of smoke accompanied by grinding gears announced the robot's destruction as his blade sank into it, giving him a moment’s reprieve. However, before he could celebrate, an all-too familiar crunching noise met his left ear. Turning, he saw his shield buckle and shudder. The robot was eating the manhole cover! Just barely managing to let go of it before it could bite his fingers, he quickly retracted his left hand’s fingers out of reach as he swung his right arm down, whipping the sword towards the arachnidrone. His crystal-light blade sliced along the walls and ceiling in a massive arc as he sent it slamming down towards the last remaining robot, chopping it right in half!

Destroyed in such a messy fashion, its internal fuel reserves caught fire, a small explosion blasting each half of the sparking, smoking wreckage away from each other. Trembling with pain as he looked around at the devastation, he looked left and right, then sighed in relief, seeing that he was alone. He needed to get to safety so he could patch himself up. Staggering down the hallway, trailing blood, he let out a shaky sigh of relief as he felt the familiar warmth of his healing processes activating, his organic parts patching themselves up. It was slower than normal though. They must have damaged his self-repair functions when they broke his circuits. Spotting another access door, he sliced the lock off in short order and hid inside the dark corridor.

While his fleshy torso might be healing itself, his mechanical parts were another story entirely. Looking over the damage, he winced and shook his head. A bullet had punched straight through his right leg, and two had pierced his right arm. Those were going to be tough to fix. Suddenly, he heard his deck softly beep, signalling that he had reached his limit of three cards. As he realised that he hadn’t heard the click of a new card being printed, his eyes went wide. The Magician was still intact somewhere in that pit! Until he got to it, he wouldn't be able to hold more than two cards. It would eventually disintegrate on its own, but that could take hours.

Taking the top card from his deck, he flipped it and frowned as he saw that it was card XVIII, The Moon. It was a good card, but useless to him right now. Sighing, he reluctantly slid his wand from its holster and tapped the card. He instantly vanished, the power of The Moon turning him invisible. It was only after he drew his second card that he realized his mistake. Now that he was invisible, he couldn't see himself, meaning that he couldn't see the card that he drew, either! Grumbling in frustration, he clumsily tapped his wand to the card, activating audible readouts of the card programs for the time being.

A recording of his own voice filled the chamber as it called out, "Card Five. The Hierophant."

Sighing in relief, he felt the wand shift into a repair tool. Now that was more like it! Feeling along his leg, he set to work, spraying the reconstructive nanobots over the bullet hole, as well as the few grazes along his leg. Feeling his leg quickly heal up, he stood, leaning against the wall as he ran his fingers along the cybernetics partially covering his torso. Sure enough, some of the bullets had punched into his circuits. Spraying them down with repair gel, he felt his sensors and actuators reconnect, filling him with a sense of strength as his healing processes came fully back online.

Suddenly, the door banged open! An arachnidrone, lured by the sound of his recorded voice, peered inside. Holding perfectly still, he waited, staring at it. His right arm was still damaged, but the hiss of the nanobots spraying from the tool would definitely alert the robot. Fuming with frustration, he waited. Every second that ticked by was another second of the card’s power wasted, and there was no telling if he’d have time to draw the Hierophant again!

Finally, the drone turned around and stalked away, seeing no threats. Suppressing a sigh of relief, he waited till the robot was far enough away, then quickly sprayed the nanobots on both of the bullet holes in his arm. A moment later, his invisibility wore off, allowing him to see the gray goo flood the wounds, rapidly hardening into stiff, glossy metal. The repair tool snapped back into a wand as his card program ran out of charge, followed by a soft click as a new card pushed from the deck.

Feeling refreshed and ready, he considered his options. Suddenly getting an idea, a mischievous grin spread across his face as he brought up his right hand, pouring crystallized light out from his fingers as he spun them, forming the shape of a glowing drill. Pressing the tip of the drill to the wall, he rapidly rotated it, starting to noisily drill through the wall. Listening closely, his sensitive ears caught the sound of metal legs skittering closer to investigate the noise. Without hesitating, he rammed the drill through! Extending his fingers, he shoved the spinning drill straight past the wall and into the arachnidrone behind it, drilling through its hard shell in seconds.

Dismissing the drill, he retracted his fingers with a soft chuckle, then darted out of the open doorway and back into the long, dark corridors. Glancing over to the oil-oozing wreckage of the spider-bot, he nodded in satisfaction. Outwitting his foes was always more fun than winning a fair fight! However, as soon as he remembered to check his energy levels, his good humor faded.

He'd only been fighting for a few minutes, but already his energy was at 67%! The cards had drained more from him than he had thought...though that gigantic laser blast certainly hadn’t helped matters. What was worse was that if his energy levels dipped below 20%, his deck would automatically stop printing cards, in order to not drain his battery to dangerous levels. He had to make sure to finish the mission before that happened!

Considering his options as he ran down the halls, he sighed softly. If only he was fighting outdoors! He could generate a lot of power from sunlight, but the arachnidrones had cut the lights in these corridors, and he wasn't gaining any charge at all. The prospect that they had done it intentionally worried him...if they were specifically targeting rabbizorgs, then they were even more dangerous than he had suspected, and them being able to jam his communications made that even more plausible!

His train of thought was suddenly halted as he heard the sound of tearing metal coming from up ahead. Pulling the new card from his deck, he flipped it over. It was card VII, The Chariot. He shrugged, then slid his wand free of its holster and tapped the card. A line of purple motorized wheels slid out from his feet, leaving him skating along on rollerblades. Not the most useful card, but at least the extra mobility would let him cover more ground. Pushing the wand back into place, he shifted both of his hands to finger gatling mode and skated around the corner.

As he turned the corner, he started spinning up the guns, aiming down the hallway. A group of eight arachnidrones greeted him with alerted beeps before he immediately showered them with a barrage of laser blasts as he skated between their bullets. Activating the magnets in his wheels, he latched onto the right wall, then skated up onto the ceiling, ducking and weaving as he avoided their fire. However, with his shots spread out over so many robots, he couldn't deal enough damage to take them out, and having to dodge all of their shots made it impossible to hold his aim on only one drone! His plan wasn't working out at all, their armor was just too thick!

As if answering his hopes, a soft click from his deck told him that a new card had just been printed. Disengaging the gatlings, he grabbed his wand and drew the card in a single motion as he dodged the robot’s gunfire, force fields deflecting the few bullets that came close. Though he only had a second to see it, he recognized it instantly as card XVI, The Tower. A dangerous card, but a powerful one. Tapping the card with his wand, he gripped the wand with both hands as it rapidly grew, shifting into a bulky sticky-bomb launcher!

Skating down the left wall, he narrowly dodged a hail of bullets, then shot out a barrage of sticky orange blobs onto the robots, before skating back up the right wall and onto the ceiling, speeding overhead as he launched bombs down onto the group, trying to tag as many as he could with the gooey bombs. Skating back down to the floor as he completed his loop, he zipped around the corner, bullets hitting the floor as he dashed to the side. As soon as he was out of sight, he hit the grenade launcher's second trigger.

A cacophony of echoing explosions rose up behind him as he grinned in delight, a blast of hot air and smoke rushing from the corridor. Turning on his heels, he raced back into the corridor, laughing to himself at the sight of the blackened, twisted wreckage of the evil robots. The Tower’s power was nothing to trifle with, that was for certain! Weaving his way past the rubble, he tried to calculate how many robots must be left. Certainly he must have put a dent in their numbers...perhaps it was time to find The Magician and make his curtain call.

Racing down the corridors, he let out a yelp as his wheels suddenly vanished, the power of The Chariot fading as a new card popped out from the deck. Falling into a roll, he barely managed to leap back to his feet and keep running, nearly falling on his face. Now he was glad that Tarix couldn’t see him. A moment later, his bomb launcher shifted back to a wand as a new card clicked out from the deck. Suddenly, Filou realized that despite the fact that he was making an incredible amount of noise, running down the metal corridors full-speed, no further robots were coming out to ambush him. Had he finally thinned them out enough?

Planning his next move, he dashed back to the pit he had first fallen into. Climbing atop a pile of rubble, he looked around. There were no signs of movement anywhere near him, and his sensors were dark. Time to bring the prey to him, then!

Amplifying his voice, he called out, “Hellooooo, Arachnidrones! Is anybody hooooome? I’m all aloooone!”

Grinning, he crouched down and extended his arms, preparing his laser cannon once more. One last blast should wipe them all out! Forming the octogonal barrel with his extended digits, he charged up another shining ball of searing magenta energy, keeping an eye on all of the entrances, ready to blast the first drones he saw.

A second card slid out from his deck, followed some time later by a soft beep as his deck failed once more to print a third. Glancing around, he frowned, still not able to see any sign of The Magician. And for that matter, where were all of the robots? A moment later, he got his answer. His sensors detected power sources above him just before a swarm of spider-bots launched themselves down onto him, stabbing down with bladed legs! Trying to jerk the long cannon up, he fired off a wildly off-center blast, melting part of the wall, but only managing to catch a single drone in the beam.

Yelping as he was nearly sliced open, he called out, “G-gah! Don’t you knock!?”

Scrambling backwards and barely avoiding the razor-sharp legs of the spider-bots as his force fields deflected them, he drew the top card of his deck in desperation. As soon as he saw that it was card XX, Judgement, his panicked expression instantly shifted to a cocky grin. Yanking his wand free as he rolled to the side to avoid one of the drone’s stabbing legs, he quickly tapped the wand against the card. An instant later, the wand rapidly lengthened, turning into a massive axe with a curved crystal-light blade on each side. The weight of Judgement in his hands was a reassuring one, and even the robots seemed to recognize its power, backing up and bringing their guns to bear.

“Oh, don’t be so shy, darlings! Let’s dance!” he laughed out as he gripped the axe with both hands.

Putting extra power into his limbs, he swung the axe like a madman, carving a path through the robots. Their armor may as well have been made of paper — no amount of metal could stop Judgement. Losing himself in the thrill of battle as he barely managed to avoid the bullets and clawed legs falling on each side of him, he didn’t see the true threat until too late.

A gigantic robot, easily twenty times the size of the others, fell downwards. With a resounding crash, it slammed into the floor, its titanic legs sinking into the metal of the pit as it braced its fall. The shockwave knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling down the side of the rubble mound. Broken pieces of machinery toppled down around him as he scrambled to his feet, staring up at his towering new adversary. As if things weren’t bad enough, the last of the arachnidrones took the cue to flood into the room, pouring out from every entrance in an attempt to overwhelm him.

“Tarix, you didn’t say anything about this!!!”

Frowning as only static greeted him, he perked up as he noticed that his sensors designated the giant robot as the source of the jamming. Without a doubt it had to be the mastermind, here. Holding his axe with just his right hand, he quickly drew the second card, revealing card IV, the Emperor. While he would have wished for something a bit more explosive, it might be just what he needed to walk away from this battle. Tapping the card against the handle of the axe, the power of The Emperor filled him. However, the moment that he activated the card’s program, a beeping alerted him to a warning on his display: his battery levels had fallen below half.

His natural shielding instantly strengthened as The Emperor augmented his force fields, covering his entire body in thick, transparent plates of crystallized purple light. It was by far his strongest defensive option, but unfortunately, it slowed him down considerably, the thick plates restricting his movement. Dashing forward, he pushed hard in order to try and reach the leader while it was still dazed from its fall. The hordes of arachnidrones surrounding him peppered him with gunfire, but their bullets smashed harmlessly into The Emperor’s crystal light armor, unable to penetrate the stiff plates. A soft click announced the arrival of a new card, barely audible over the sharp pings of bullets bouncing off of his armor.

Sprinting beneath the giant robot, he gripped Judgement’s handle with both hands as he swung the axe up in a wide arc, aiming for just beneath the robot’s camera-laden “head”. The giant robot was far faster than it looked though, and quickly skittered to the right, turning his deadly strike into a mere annoyance as his axe instead cleaved through one of the robot’s many legs. Trapped by the axe’s hefty backswing, and slowed by The Emperor’s thick plating, he staggered backwards just in time to see the ominous red energy gathering between the giant spider-bot’s crackling fangs.

A beam of blindingly bright red light shot forward, slamming him backwards into the pile of rubble as it melted the surrounding metal, glowing orange streams of molten metal blasted back by the blast. Only the sturdy plates of The Emperor managed to protect him from the overwhelming assault, and even then, he could feel that his fur had been badly singed. Staggering up slowly, he gasped as the crystallized light armor abruptly flickered and faded, discharging early, followed shortly after by his axe, his wand laying beside him, knocked out of his hand. Surrounded by molten metal, he stared up at the robot, seeing the red glow of another beam charging. Just as he thought himself beaten, he saw his ace in the hole.

Sitting apart from the molten rubble, miraculously untouched by the devastation around it, a single card sat to his left. The Magician! Thinking fast, he grabbed his wand and rolled towards the card, narrowly avoiding a second scorching blast, the ray of light filling the room with a dull, echoing roar as it instantly heated the air to incredible levels. Scooping up the card from the ground, he tugged his new card free from his deck as well, holding both out before him as he ducked behind a protective mound of half-melted metal wreckage.

Wincing at the sound of bullets ricocheting behind him, he glanced down. Holding card I, The Magician and card XVII, The Star, he grinned and quickly tapped the tip of his wand to the latter. A quick check of his battery showed he was down to 44%, but that would be resolved shortly. The power of The Star activated, the card dissipating into a hundred tiny motes of white light, which soon swirled around him as they grew, shrouding him in dazzling starlight. His battery began to rapidly recharge from the light, giving him room to breathe.

Next, he quickly tapped his wand to The Magician and tossed the card into the air. The card shimmered as it spun, reshaping itself into a wide-brimmed black tophat. As the hat fell, he caught it with a grin. As soon as he touched it, power flooded his system as the symbols on his ears lit up. The top hat and bird symbols on those large ears began to shine brightly, a surge of power crackling through his wand as he leapt up atop the smoking pile of rubble, facing the army of arachnidrones.

“We’ve had our fun, but I’m afraid this next trick will be the last!” he called out as he raised his wand.

Tapping his wand against the brim of his hat with a flourish, a swarm of gleaming white birds flew from the hat. Of course, he did not pull mere doves from his hat. The birds were in fact hard-light constructs with thin, polygonal bodies with a deadly edge. Immediately, the robots surrounding him opened fire, but the flock of birds swooped down and swirled around him in a protective ring, knocking the bullets aside with their dancing forms.

The ring of crystallized light birds grew wider and wider as they continued to pour from the hat. Of course, summoning so many would cost an enormous amount of energy, but with The Star bathing him in light, he was already back up to 68%! Gesturing with his wand, he watched as the birds dove into the horde of arachnidrones ringing the pit, their sharp bodies slicing through their hard shells with ease. Explosions lit the room in orange as the robot’s fuel caught fire, sending columns of black smoke into the air.

Seeing a familiar red glow, he abruptly leapt off of the mound of rubble, rolling to the side as a beam of scarlet death shot across the chamber, the giant spider having only barely missed. In fact, as he saw the many shards of fading light falling to the ground, he realized that a large number of the birds had partially blocked the shot, and were obliterated in the process. He couldn’t keep this up forever, and seeing as how the birds couldn’t do much more than scratch the big spider’s chassis, he needed another plan!

Hearing the familiar click of a new card sliding from his deck, he gave the top hat a final tap, then tossed it up into the air, a storm of gleaming wings bursting from its mouth as he drew his final card. He laughed as he saw that he had drawn lucky card XIII, Death. Nothing would be more fitting for taking down the monster of a robot before him. Not using the card just yet, he relied on deception and speed to close in, the smaller arachnidrones uselessly firing up into the swarms of birds, crumpling to the ground as the hard light constructs cut them to ribbons.

Thankfully, their much-larger leader was similarly focused, the behemoth angling up to shoot the top hat out of the air with another devastating blast, its roaring crimson laser beam finally destroying the source of the birds. Dashing beneath the robot as it fired, he tapped his wand against Death. The wand lengthened, and a wickedly curved blade of crystallized purple light slid from its top, transforming the wand into a gleaming, deadly scythe.

Filou gripped the scythe’s handle and swung upwards with all of his might. With the scream of thick metal being sliced apart, the blade pierced into the spider’s exposed underbelly. A chorus of panicked alarms filled the chamber as he yanked it forward and down, messily carving the gigantic robot’s chassis wide open, nearly splitting it in half! The giant spider bot tottered, smoke billowing from the gash as it tried to keep itself up, before it slowly began to fall towards his left, unable to support itself.

Leaping to the right, he barely managed to avoid getting crushed by the collapsing spider bot, plumes of smoke rising up into the pit as its legs quivered and seized, before finally going still. Leaning on his scythe as if it were a cane, he watched as the swarm of sharp-winged birds sliced through the very last of the arachnidrones in a deadly, spiraling swoop, ringing the arena with plumes of smoke. As the birds began to fade into glimmers of light, the last twinkles of The Star dimming, he took a bow in the light of the burning wreckage of robots.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a terrific audience tonight! Thank you, thank you all!”

* * *

Walking the halls of the engine rooms with the repair crew, Filou de les Étoiles winced as he spotted an all-too-familiar corridor. Blackened, warped panels covered the entirety of the middle section, a remnant of The Tower’s wrath. Sighing quietly, he waved the repair rabbits ahead and said, “Leave this one to me, I’m sure there’s more to fix up ahead”

Thanking him, they left him to it. He crouched down, pulling out a drill and getting to work. It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as performing magic or fighting evil robots, but it had to be done. After all, what sort of hero would he be if he left all the consequences of the battle to everyone else? As he pried a ruined section of wall away, he spotted a small, beeping device, and picked it up, scrutinizing it.

Once he realized what it was, he immediately opened up a secure line to his leader. A few seconds later, a beep announced that his call had been accepted.

“Hey, Boss? You’re gonna want to see this...”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!!
> 
> I haven't written seriously for a few years, but it's been a blast writing Filou's antics, and I might just make this a series, especially if people like it.
> 
> I hope one day to see a thriving community of Rabbizorgs out there~!


End file.
